The Clan of Artūn Ūl

Chaga Dzeshēn at our lead,
The Nine Tribes of the Hearthland thunder out south.
The children of the stone, descendants of the water,
Fold into the Hearth of Ozel the eternal.
Clan of Artūn Ūl eternal.

— Veneration of the Clan of Artūn Ūl,

a poem performed in 1077 at the Declaration of the Nation of Ozel

The Clan of Artūn Ūl is an organisation of six families who trace their descent from of the Conqueror, Artūn Ūl of the Itān peoples. The Conqueror, known as Chaga Dzeshēn by the Itān, unified the nine Itān tribes of the Howling Plains and led them to conquer the Kin Empire and Oases Confederate to the south. This conquest is known to posterity as the Tempest.

*Note on symbols: Any vowel with a bar over it means lengthen the vowel. So the word “cāt” would be pronounced like the English word “cat”, but with a long “a” (so like “caaat”).

Structure

by Iyo Nishiura

The Clan of Artūn Ūl consists of six descent lines, or houses. Each house rules a territory within the Empire. Five of the houses traces their descent from Artūn Ūl’s children, and one traces their descent from his sister Urētkazna.

A more accurate name for this clan would be the Clan of Segtūn Ūl (Artūn and Urētkazna’s father), but the most famous member of this clan is undoubtedly Artūn Ūl; the one who oversaw a vast territorial expansion of the Itān unlike anything seen in the history of the Shenraq. Artūn Ūl set up the dynastic foundations of this conquest empire, the Nation of Ozel, or the Tsoro Ozel.
The six house of the Clan of Artūn Ūl are rulers of six different territories in the Nation of Ozel. Artūn Ūl’s will specified the extent of power for each house, and for four generations this will has been observed. On paper the Nation is run jointly by the six houses with the House of Muyutsol as the executive head. Overtime, in practice, each house has come to run their territory as they please.

• The House of Muyotsol

• The House of Urētkazna

• The Houses of Roztay and Raztay

• The House of Dortog

• The House of Teghsāl

by Iyo Nishiura

A note on Itān culture before presenting the six houses. The Itān have a system of descent where most people in society are divided into two moieties: Hearthers (land owner and home maker) and Herders (owner of livestock who herd them on Hearther land). The biological children of a family are divided into one of the two groups at birth. The children who belong to the same moiety as the the parent is called a Direct Son/Daughter, while a child who belongs to the opposite moiety is just called a Son/Daughter. Artūn Ūl, a Hearther, calls his Hearther children Direct Son/Daughter, while he calls is Herder children Son/Daughter.

The House of Muyutsol

Muyutsol was Artūn Ūl’s first born, a Direct Daughter. As such she was left to inherit the Shagra Tribe homeland in the Howling Plains. The official title of Dzeshēn (Leader) was passed to her after Artūn Ūl’s death. As the Primary Hearther of the Clan of Artūn Ūl, the House of Muyutsol is given joint executive power to make decisions about how the Tsoro Ozel is to be run.
Character: The House of Muyutsol pride themselves on their heritage, and style themselves as strong leaders with vision. They are firm believers in a heavenly mission to grow the Nation of Ozel, and enjoy playing power politics to keep the other houses teathered. As time passes, however, they are becoming more and more frustrated and concerned with the autonomy of the other houses as they root themselves deeper into the territories they conquered.

by Iyo Nishiura

Head of the House: The head of the house in the year 1171 is Dorsor Zortūl Taghshak Kharamtal Shagra Ūl (age 31). He is the 6th Dzeshēn of the Tsoro Ozel.

The House of Urētkazna

“As long as Urētkazna and her descendants protect the Oases Path from the ravages of those savage children, the Tsoro Ozel will stand.”

— Words supposedly uttered by Artūn Ūl upon the drafting of his will.



by Iyo Nishiura

Urētkazna was Artūn Ūl’s younger Herder sister, and right hand personnel during the conquest. In recognition of her contributions, loyalty, and wisdom, she and her descendants were designated custodianship of the Oases Pathway that precariously joins the Kin and Ullan lands through the monumental deserts of the Shenraq. The House of Urētkazna have joint executive power with the House of Muyutsol in making decisions about how the Nation of Ozel is to be run. As such, the Houses of Muyutsol and Urētkazna have historically been close; it also helps that they are geographically the closest to one another.

Because the Oases Path lie in the geographical centre of the Nation of Ozel, the House of Muyutsol is inf act very dependent on the House of Urētkazna for information, support, and access to the other territories. Thus far in the history of the Nation of Ozel, the house has remained true to the will of Artūn Ūl and supported the houses of his children, but this is not a guarantee set in stone.

Character: The House of Urētkazna have a reputation for being loyal, serious, and very conservative. They adhere to traditional Itān cultural practices strictly.
Head of the House: The head of the house in the year 1171 is Igrikan Tegekazna Tirysāl Kharamtal Shagra Ūl (age 58).

The Houses of Roztay and Raztay



Roztay and Raztay were twins, second and third born Son and Daughter respectively. They joined the conquest at a young age, and their forces conquered the vast majority of the Ullan Oases City States at an unprecedented speed. Their brutality in conquest is well documented in Ullan sources and supported in Itān lore. So brutal were the two, Artūn Ūl himself is said to have referred to them as his “savage children”. While this is not something that is publicly acknowledged or said to the respective houses, most Itān refer to the twins as “the savage twins” in everyday language.
Both houses rule their respective territories rather loosely. They view their conquered territories as their possessions, and act like absolute monarchs. While both houses have a lot of power over their respective Ullan subordinates, they have tended to allow them to run their city states mostly intact. This is the most effective way for the city states to generate wealth, and the houses demand tribute from this system to grow their personal collections of treasures.

by Iyo Nishiura

Emblem of the House of Roztay



by Iyo Nishiura

Emblem of the House of Raztay

Character: The Houses of Roztay and Raztay pride themselves as ferocious warriors who enjoy expanding their wealth. They have actively incorporated elements from the technologically sophisticated Ullan into their lives, and have inter-married with Ullan over the generations. For the Houses of Roztay and Raztay, their incorporation of Ullan peoples into their descent line is almost a point of pride.

Heads of the Houses: The Houses of Roztay and Raztay are well known for their intrigue and intergenerational power-struggles. Many heads of houses die young under mysterious circumstances. The head of the House of Roztay in the year 1171 is Zānshak Khimtūn Dzokrkay Roztay=sol (age 28), and the House of Raztay is Gitatūl Nādshak Hirkan Raztay=sol (age 40).

The House of Dortog



The House of Dortog have one of the largest and most powerful territories of the entire Nation of Ozel. As the last born Direct Son of Artūn Ūl, under conventional Itān inheritance practices Dortog should have received the true heartland of his father; this territory in fact went to his oldest sister, Muyutsol. Dortog himself was said to be a humble man who followed his father’s wishes, but his subsequent descendants have constantly grumbled how they should be the true owners of the Shagra heartland.

One of their greatest assets is the imperial bureaucracy which they kept intact after the official conquest of the Kin Empire. The Kin imperial family was ended, but the bureaucracy continues to gather taxes and intelligence, enriching the House of Dortog as a result.

by Iyo Nishiura

Emblem of the House of Dortog

Relationship with other Houses: The House of Dortog view the House of Teghsāl with great suspicion, and have engaged in low-level skirmishes over the generations. There are underlying tensions with the House of Muyutsol, but when push comes to shove, they have tended to support the Dzeshēn. .
Character: The House of Dortog is accused of being greedy, and constantly make claims on the territories of the other houses. Perhaps due to the influences of the underlying Kin Empire (who are gone in name, but still exist in the form of the imperial bureaucracy), the House of Dortog are less Itān-like in their behaviour than the other houses.

The head of the house in the year 1171 is Arkazna Tirytogh Geghēn Kharamtal Shagra Ūl (age 68).

The House of Teghsāl

Shiami Im was devoured. It sighed as it faded. Our subjugation was complete.

— Devouring of Shiami Im, a Kin legend



by Iyo Nishiura

Emblem of the House of Teghsāl

The House of Teghsāl is a pariah house. Teghsāl was the the fourth Daughter of Artūn Ūl. She took a band of Itān and swept through the territories east of Sinlam River in the Kin Lands and declared those as her own. Artūn Ūl was upset that she had done so without his blessing, though it is said that she was promised these territories by him before she jumped the gun. As such, some of the other houses did not recognise the House of Teghsāl as a part of the Clan of Artūn Ūl, but over time they have come to be accepted. Their reputation to this day, however, is that they cannot be fully trusted.

A legend in circulation among the post-conquest Kin is that Teghsāl killed the Kin totem, an ancient underground lake fish, Shiami Im. The story goes that Teghsāl slaughtered her way through the sacred Origin Temple of the Kin, and discovered the sacred lake from which the Kin peoples were thought to have been borne into the world. The lake was home to the Kin totem. Teghsāl caught the fish and ate it raw. It is said that the crown of the House of Teghsāl is adorned with the scales of this legendary fish.

Character: The House of Teghsāl is known as the most brutal of the houses, as the Kin population were thoroughly ransacked and terrorised during the conquest. The population are still subject to the harshest of punishments. To this day, the territories of this house are the poorest, most depleted, and ruled most dictatorially in the entire Nation of Ozel.
Head of the House: The head of the house in the year 1171 is Ulūtay Darasāl Ghilshak Teghsāl=sol (age 53). It is well known, however, that Ulūtay is very much under the thumb of his mother, the former Head of the House Darasāl Ghilshak Kūshamne Teghsāl=sol

History

The conventional origins of The Tempest are attributed to the rise of the Conqueror Artūn Ūl, but I would in fact trace it further back to the Conqueror’s father, Segtūn Shagra. The role of Segtūn Shagra in the rise of his descendants' fortunes is laid out meticulously in the official history of the Nation of Ozeldūn, The Formal History of the Itān-Shagra. While some of it is undoubtedly embellishment by official court historians and the Chaga Dzeshēn’s descendants, it is clear he was indeed instrumental in setting the foundations of a unified Itān nation.

— Olyë leye Gorrg, “The Collective Histories of the Shenraq”

The Clan of Artūn Ūl are part of the Shagra tribe of the Itān, and rose to prominence as he fought and united the nine great tribes. Artūn Ūl himself passed away before the conquest officially ended, but he left a will designating territories to his sister and his children to secure the future of his fledgling empire. The Tempest was brought to its conclusion by Artūn Ūl’s children, when the northern portion of the Kin Empire formally surrendered to his son Dortog Ūl.

Assets

In theory, everything in the Nation of Ozel collectively belongs to the Clan of Artūn UŪl. In practice, each house has their own assets depending on where they are located.

House	Territories	Other Assets
House of Muyutsol by Iyo Nishiura	Shagra tribe lands	Executive authority: ability to call executive gathering, ability to call upon the army of the Nation of Ozel. Control over certain Itān shaman groups.
House of Urētkazna by Iyo Nishiura	The Oases Pathway of the Ullan lands.	The ability to veto the House of Muyutsol. Access to the Guild of Waterways.
House of Roztay by Iyo Nishiura	Ullan lands south of Sanälukka.	Can force any Ullan institution under its jurisdiction to obey any order made in the name of the house. Unfettered access to the Guild of Minerals, the Guild of Smiths, and the Guild of Engineers.
House of Raztay by Iyo Nishiura	Ullan lands north of, and including, Sanälukka.	Can force any Ullan institution under its jurisdiction to obey any order made in the name of the house. Unfettered access to the Guild of Minerals, the Guild of Smiths, and the Guild of Letters, and the Guild of Stone Masonry, and the Guild of Glasswork.
House of Teghsāl by Iyo Nishiura	Kin lands east of the Sinlam River. This territory is called the Ancient District by the Kin people, and is considered the spiritual and cultural heartland of the Kin.	The totem of the Kin peoples.
House of Dortog by Iyo Nishiura	All Kin lands other than those occupied by the House of Teghsāl.	The Kin Imperial Bureaucracy. This includes the offices of taxation, infrastructure, espionage, a diplomatic core.

Each house has its own personal army of varying size, composition, loyalty and strength.

Emblem of the Clan of Artūn Ūl.

The central eye represents Artūn Ūl, while the six spiral motifs represent the six houses that comprise the clan.

Founder

Artūn Ūl

Civilisation

Itān

Type

Family

Table of Contents

• Structure
• The House of Muyotsol
• The House of Urētkazna
• The Houses of Roztay and Raztay
• The House of Dortog
• The House of Teghsāl
• History
• Assets

Terminology: System of Descent and Kinship

The Itān have a system of descent where most people in society are divided into two moieties: Hearthers (land owner and home maker) and Herders (owner of livestock who herd them on Hearther land). The biological children of a family are divided into one of the two groups at birth. The children who belong to the same moiety as the the parent is called a Direct Son/Daughter, while a child who belongs to the opposite moiety is just called a Son/Daughter.
Artūn Ūl, a Hearther, calls his Hearther children Direct Son/Daughter, while he calls is Herder children Son/Daughter.